Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh is asking the county Board of Education to reconsider sections of its guidelines for addressing transgender students.

Specifically, Schuh wrote in a letter to School Board President Stacy Korbelak that the administration is concerned about guidelines that allow for transgender students to participate in single-sex athletic teams, use locker rooms and bathrooms and sleep in overnight situations with the gender a student identifies with rather than their biological gender.

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“We believe that all students facing challenges should be offered reasonable accommodations, and we support several of the accommodations proposed by the board for transgender students, including use of preferred names and alternative bathroom arrangements,” Schuh wrote. “However, we do not support unnecessary and extreme accommodations that would have negative impacts on other students.”

"It's not good public policy to allow mixed gender for overnight or school-sponsored activities," said Amalie E. Brandenburg, the county executive's education officer, who also signed the letter. "We need to make sure we're looking out for the rights of all students, including transgender students and the non-transgender students as well."

Schuh wrote that he is “mystified” by what appears to be an “extreme overreaction” by the board to the recent letter from the Obama administration pertaining to transgender rights.

Also in April, a federal appeals court sided with Gavin Grimm, a Virginia resident, who challenged the school board’s new policy at Gloucester High School that allowed him to use a unisex restroom, but denied him access to the boys’ bathroom.

Schuh wrote that the board has not respected the rights of all students in its handling of this matter.

“The exercise of all of our natural rights, including freedom of speech, religion, assembly and privacy, may result in conflicts with the rights of others,” Schuh wrote. “It is incumbent upon our governing bodies, including boards of education, to respect the rights of all parties when the exercise of one person’s rights conflict with those of another."

"I think that the county executive would like to have public input as far as parents, students moving forward with whatever direction the school system decides to take on the implementation of their non-discrimination policies," Brandenburg said.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools officials called the letter "disappointing."

"The single goal of our school system is to elevate all students and to eliminate all gaps, and the county executive and his education adviser make clear in their letter that 'all simply doesn't mean all' in their view," Anne Arundel County Schools spokesman Bob Mosier said.

Mosier said the guidelines were re-emphasized for educators when the school year started two weeks ago.

"What we should be doing is building up every group of students and every individual students, not segregating them," Mosier said. "These are operational guidelines that the superintendent and staff here have worked on and that we've had in place throughout our school system in some form or fashion for several years without any issues."

The Board of Education doesn't have a policy on transgender students, and the thinking is that the board will hold off on drafting one until the law of the land becomes clear.